


Another Kind of Separable

by Aris Merquoni (ArisTGD)



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Animal Death, Crueltide, Dark Magic, Gen, Hugs, More than canon-typical animal harm, Pre-Canon, Things aren't really better at the end, Yuletide, Yuletide 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArisTGD/pseuds/Aris%20Merquoni
Summary: Claudia's lessons in Dark Magic have taught her so many useful and interesting things, so surely when she finds her brother upset, she's learned something that can make everything better. That's what magic is for!
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Another Kind of Separable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inkasrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkasrain/gifts).



> The ages of the characters in-canon aren't clearly specified, but I imagine this to take place when Claudia and Soren are preteens, so ~10-12 years old.
> 
> Happy 3rd/4th night of Hanukkah! I hope this story about people screwing up but still loving each other brings you light and joy this season.

Claudia stared into the candle. She was sitting straight, elbows on the table, watching the fire flicker warmly.

Her father had his book of spells open on the table in front of him, and she had a variety of spell components laying on the table in front of her. Next to the candle were two cages, each holding a fat rat trapped by the castle's cook.

"Now, Claudia," her father said warmly. "Remember how we've been talking about magic and life energy. Magical creatures have their connection to their primal source bound up in their life. But all creatures have life essence, whether or not they are magical."

She frowned and looked at the rats. "Does that mean that we could use non-magical creatures in spells, too?"

"Sometimes." He set his hand on top of the leftmost cage. The rat inside lifted onto its hind legs to snuffle at his palm with its whiskers. "But the amount of magical energy that comes from the connection to a primal source is far superior. It lingers even after the life essence is gone from the creature. That is why we can use these remnants," he gestured at her spell components, "which still retain their potency."

She nodded. Her lessons had been going on for a couple years now, but she was already able to cast a lot of spells, and her dad had taught her a lot of charms and cantrips with things like moth wings and wasp thoraxes. But she'd never heard of anyone doing magic with a non-magical creature's life essence.

"For now, we will focus on influencing the life energy of these rats, rather than using them for spells," her dad said, and she straightened her back again.

Claudia watched in interest as her father fed one of the two rats a bit of cheese. "This cheese contains a small amount of poison," he explained. "That will make the rat a little bit sick--just enough to notice." The rat was already moving more sluggishly, listing in a circle, and pawing at its face.

"Now." He held up a strange blue-gray claw. "This is the talon of a sea wrack. The sea connects all living things to each other, so it is the ocean primal that we will use to connect these two rats."

He swiftly reached into the cage and picked up the sick rat, pricking it in the back of the head with the talon's tip. He repeated the action with the other rat, then held the claw aloft. "¡Dnuoser niap s'rehto eht hcae ot!"

The claw glowed a deep, violet light, and Claudia leaned forward, entranced. Spirals of the purple energy washed out like waves, splashing into the two animals.

After a moment, the light faded and the claw dissolved into dust, its magical essence gone. Her father wavered on his feet, slightly, putting his hands heavily on the table.

Claudia watched the rats, fascinated, as the sick one straightened up and scampered around the cage, while the well one shook its head and staggered, slightly.

"What did you do?"

He straightened, skin gone pale and eyes shadowed. His gestures were firm and clear as he explained. "The two now share life essence. The poisoned one has been healed, and the well one has suffered some of the poison. It means that the sick rat has a better chance to survive."

"Wooooww," Claudia breathed, leaning forward. "Can you do it with any animals? What if one of them dies? What if you linked, like, a really short-lived bug with a really long-lived turtle?"

"Slow down, slow down," her father said, laughing. "I don't know all the answers. Hopefully, in the years to come, we will be able to figure it out."

Claudia grinned and bent her head to the words of magic she would need to learn.

* * *

After her lesson, Claudia ran out into the courtyard and the sunshine, looking for her brother. Soren wasn't good at magic at all, but he was learning to be a squire, and sometimes she got to watch him learning how to use a sword. It wasn't nearly as cool or useful as magic, but he liked it when she cheered him on.

Soren wasn't at the practice ground, or at the kitchen, or in his room. She searched all over the castle for his shock of blond hair, and finally found him down by the stables, crouched behind a bale of hay. "Sor-bear?"

"Hey, Claudia," he said. He sounded sad, and when she poked her head around to see what he was looking at, she understood.

The master of hounds for the king let Soren and Claudia both help with taking care of the new puppies every year. Claudia loved playing with the wriggling baby dogs, but didn't give it much thought. Soren, on the other hand, seemed to really bond with the puppies. Every year their father would have to yell at him for sneaking a puppy (or two!) into his bed and letting them chew on his socks.

This year, he'd grown attached to the runt of the litter, to the houndmaster's consternation. Claudia didn't see why it was such a problem, since Soren was happy to take care of it and carry it everywhere it couldn't walk. As it got thinner and thinner, he'd taken to tucking it in the crook of his arm and feeding it table scraps.

Now the little runt puppy was curled up on a nest of white fabric, snuffling softly, gray-brown fur looking thin and ribs sticking out. One of the puppy's littermates, a black-spotted dog nearly twice the runt's size, was licking the sick puppy's head and whining softly.

Soren looked up to Claudia with a devastated expression, tears pooling at the corners of his eyes. "The master of hounds says that he-he's gonna die and there's nothing he can do about it," Soren said, voice wobbling.

Claudia squinted at the nest. "Is that your underwear?"

"Y-yeah. I mean, I thought, it smells like me, he seems to like it..."

"Ew, gross," Claudia said, but softly. "I'm sorry, Soren. But you knew the puppy wasn't going to live very long. The best you can do is make it comfortable." That's what her dad would say, she was pretty sure. He was real good at saying sad news in a way that made things not sound so bad.

Claudia gathered up her skirt and sat down on the ground next to her brother, and leaned her head against his shoulder. He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. The healthier puppy walked over to Soren and and whined softly.

"That one's named Fang," Soren said. "The master of hounds said we shouldn't name the runt, since he probably wasn't gonna live, but I named him Buddy."

Claudia watched her brother pet both Fang and Buddy absently, and had the spark of an idea. It would probably make the master of hounds upset, but wouldn't he rather have two living dogs than one dead one? And she was sure it would make Soren happy, and making her brother's face light up with that doofy grin of his, well, she was sure it would make the pang she felt when she looked at the sick puppy or his tears go away.

In fact, she knew it would, because he wouldn't be crying if he was grinning, and the puppy wouldn't be sick any more. So it was a great plan.

"Soren, wait here," she said. "I'll be right back."

She scampered back to her father's workshop. It took her a while to find the jar of sea wrack talons, tucked behind preserved gryphon eyeballs and will-o-wisp gas. But she found it, and took just one, wrapped in a bit of cloth and shoved into her pocket. The jar still had at least six more in it, she was sure it would be fine. And how hard could it be to find a sea wrack, anyway? Apparently sailors down in Evenere complained about them all the time.

With her prize, she ran back to the stables, ducking around the adults in her way. When she got back, Soren looked up with wide eyes.

"Buddy stopped moving," he said. Fang was wrapped around the sick puppy and whining.

"Don't worry," Claudia said. She pulled the wrack claw out of her pocket. "I got this."

Did the order she pricked them in matter? She decided to be careful and touched the claw to Buddy's head first, the way that her dad had to the sick rat. Buddy's head lolled in her hand and his eyes didn't open. Trying to keep her breathing steady, she petted Fang, then touched the claw to his head as well. Fang flinched and shook his head, making the cut a little longer than she'd wanted, but it was okay, she'd got both of them and was ready for the next step.

She held the claw up over the heads of the two puppies, ignoring Fang's whimper as she concentrated on the magic spell. Her vision slipped sideways for a second and she felt the power of the ocean, tucked inside the wrack's claw, sloshing like a half-full bottle of milk. "¡Dnuoser niap s'rehto eht hcae ot!" she chanted, and the power burst forth like a cracking egg, dripping down onto both of the puppies.

The talon blew away into ash, and she blinked her eyes clear of magic and looked eagerly at the two pups. "Did it work?"

Fang whimpered and gave Buddy's head another lick. Soren got down on his hands and knees and put his face down near Buddy's. "I... I dunno. What's it supposed to do?"

Claudia was about to answer when Fang whimpered suddenly, different than the little whines he'd been making, a shocking sound of pain and fear. She watched wide eyed as Fang started turning in circles, limping and falling to the ground.

"It's... it's okay," she said. "This is part of the spell, Fang will be fine, and Buddy will get up--"

But Buddy didn't get up. Buddy stayed curled up in a small, cold ball, as Fang started howling in pain, staggering and twitching. Claudia watched with horror and a strange detached interest as the dog tossed his head back and forth and blood started seeping from his mouth.

"No, Fang!" Soren cried, as the dog coughed and staggered toward him. He clutched the dog into his arms and stared at Claudia with wide-eyed betrayal. "What did you do?"

"I... I didn't know this would happen," Claudia said, backing away. "It worked fine--"

"What is going on here?" their father said from behind her.

Claudia whirled around. Their dad looked between her and Soren, then down to the puppy in Soren's arms. "Soren, don't hold that dog, it could get you sick."

"Fang's not sick!" Soren exclaimed. "Something happened to him!" The dog coughed out raspy breaths, as though in emphasis.

"I don't know what happened, dad!" Claudia said. Dad would know what was wrong with the spell. Then he'd fix it and the puppies would be fine and Soren would stop looking so hurt. "I just used the spell like you showed me, just like I practiced--"

Their father finally looked down to Buddy, still curled up and unmoving on Soren's underwear. "Oh," he said. "I see." His voice went gentle, a tone that Claudia rarely heard him use when he was teaching. "Claudia, the spell links the life force of two living creatures, so that they live and die together. But this... puppy was already dead."

Claudia stared at him as she started to understand what he was saying. "Oh no..."

He nodded solemnly. "So you see, that's the answer to one of your questions this morning."

It felt like her chest was being sat on by a dragon, crushing her lungs and making it impossible to breathe. "Fix it!" she cried. She felt her eyes start to sting with tears. "Fix it!"

Her father sighed and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Claudia. I can't."

The scream welled up inside her and burst out, and she threw her arms around her father as he patted her head, and Soren sobbed as the puppy in his arms coughed once again and stopped breathing.

* * *

Late that night, after Claudia had apologized to the master of hounds and eaten an uncomfortable, silent dinner, she was lying on her back staring at the ceiling when Soren climbed into bed next to her. He hadn't done that in a few years now, but she was so happy that he was willingly curling up next to her that she wouldn't dare tease him for being a baby.

"Hey, Clauds?" he whispered.

"Yeah, Soren?"

He reached out and pulled her into a hug. It was really awkward to hug lying down, all tangled arms and blankets, but it felt warm and safe and she hugged back as best she could. "You okay?"

"I'm so sorry, Soren," she said. It wasn't really an answer but it was what she felt she had to say. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know the spell would do that. I thought I was doing a good thing and it turned out so horribly wrong."

"I know," he said. "I know, Clauds, it was just..."

She pushed him away and sat up. "Soren, I promise, I will study hard and be the best mage ever, and I'll never mess up something like that again."

He got a funny smile on his face. "I know, Claudia. You're the best." He looked down. "I just... don't try something new like that where I can see, okay?"

Claudia felt her heart sink a bit. Soren, her silly, doofy brother. She used to be able to tell him anything. And now there was something that had come between them. She wanted to shove that something aside, force it away, keep them together and inseparable.

"I... I promise, Soren," she said, and he smiled again, reassured.

Claudia curled up next to him, lay her head on his shoulder, and stayed awake a long time in the dark.


End file.
